Hammer Film Production and CBS Films’s 2012 adaptation of The Woman in Black, straying somewhat from Susan Hill’s original, which includes an epilogue, sees brooding widower Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe) sceptically becoming caught up in the occult tragedies of the small coastal village of Crythin Gifford, having being dispatched to settle the affairs of Mrs. Alice Drablow. Unlike the original, Kipps leaves behind a young son in London; an effective twist which makes him more believable as the paternal figure he becomes during the course of the film.
Having absolutely no expectations of the film whatsoever, and not generally being effected by ‘ghosts and ghouls’, I settled into my seat with a smug sense of security which I fear I will never recover. Cruelly, the first 20 minutes or so of action, whilst still watchable, were fairly unassuming, continuing to feed my naïve sense that all was right with the world and that I was going to reach 30 without suffering a major fear-induced heart-attack. About 30 minutes in, however, I began to be increasingly aware of my own mortality.
‘The Woman in Black’ includes both aspects of typical eerie period dramas set in small, remote English hamlets- imagine plenty of little pale-faced children staring out of windows and stubborn-to-the-point of murderous locals (something which, being from Somerset, I can completely relate to)-and more modern horror-movie fair. However, the real art here is that the two styles have been so skilfully combined that neither takes control, neither becomes hackneyed or overdone. Every good old-fashioned guttering candle and slamming door interacts brilliantly with the more modern CGI’d elements of the film to create truly heart-stopping shocks. The real beauty of the film is that is uses the clichés inherent in period drama to its advantage- allowing you to convince yourself again and again that you know what’s about to happen, before blind siding you completely and terrifyingly.
I feel I should mention Dan himself. Although for the first few scenes of The Woman in Black, all I could see was Radcliffe’s face interspersed with images of a fresh-faced, bespectacled young wizard, he soon managed to shake this off. Radcliffe is on screen in every shot that isn’t just of the marshes and silent for the majority of the time – no easy feat. Despite this he manages to lead the audience from frustration to denial to outright horror. The only slight niggle being that he does still really sound like Harry Potter at times, because of the accent.
In summary the Woman in Black is a brilliant modern take on the original book and a satisfyingly terrifying British film. Whilst sometimes predictable it is nonetheless creepy that left me sleepless for days.
